Often, phpList is used BESIDES an existing customer database, online shop, or whatever. The need arises to sometimes synchronize both, or at least somehow keep them up-to-date.

Now, if we allow users (and admins) to CHANGE user data, we might want to know their "last modified" date & time, in order to possibly decide if it’s newer data that we need to put into our main customer database (like when they change their name, email, or postal address).

I must say I was pretty shocked to find out the "Last modified" date given on the user page only reflects the last list subscription/unsubscription date, NOT any other changes that might have been done (and are duly noted in the user’s history!). There isn’t even a "last modified" field in the user database. Still, the "user detail" screen LOOKS like giving us the date & time of the last change … implying any user data changes.

Not to make a short story too long, I very much wish for (and recommend) introducing a "last changed" field within the user table that reflects the last change, whatever that might have been! (Like we can see in the user’s history but, sadly, not EXPORT to a foreign database!)

Since phpList apparently was designed to sync with "foreign" databases (think of "foreign key"!), I reckon the lack of a real "last changed" field is maybe just an oversight and can—hopefully—easily be integrated.